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The National Transportation Safety Board is seeking routine access to cockpit voice recorders as a means of ensuring that pilots are following safety rules. "It is essential to understand what is going on in the cockpit if we are to achieve further reductions" in accident rates, NTSB Chairwoman Debbie Hersman told USA TODAY in defending the request, which is strongly opposed by pilot unions. The agency says the recordings could be reviewed anonymously to protect pilots' privacy while seeking to identify safety trends. Currently, cockpit recordings are used only in accident investigations.

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The National Transportation Safety Board is seeking routine access to cockpit voice recorders as a means of ensuring that pilots are following safety rules. "It is essential to understand what is going on in the cockpit if we are to achieve further reductions" in accident rates, NTSB Chairwoman Debbie Hersman told USA TODAY in defending the request, which is strongly opposed by pilot unions. The agency says the recordings could be reviewed anonymously to protect pilots' privacy while seeking to identify safety trends. Currently, cockpit recordings are used only in accident investigations.

Pilot error caused last year's fatal crash of a Colgan Air commuter plane near Buffalo, the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday. But there was plenty of blame to go around in the board's report, which also found failures in training, regulation and company culture. "The report we are considering today concludes our accident investigation, but in many respects, it is just the beginning," said NTSB Chairwoman Deborah Hersman, noting more than two dozen recommendations that emerged from the board's investigation of the accident, which killed 50.

Pilot error caused last year's fatal crash of a Colgan Air commuter plane near Buffalo, the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday. But the board's report also found failures in training, regulation and company culture. "The report we are considering today concludes our accident investigation, but in many respects, it is just the beginning," said NTSB Chairwoman Deborah Hersman, noting more than two dozen recommendations that emerged from the board's investigation of the accident.

Pilot error caused last year's fatal crash of a Colgan Air commuter plane near Buffalo, the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday. But there was plenty of blame to go around in the board's report, which also found failures in training, regulation and company culture. "The report we are considering today concludes our accident investigation, but in many respects, it is just the beginning," said NTSB Chairwoman Deborah Hersman, noting more than two dozen recommendations that emerged from the board's investigation of the accident, which killed 50.

In a final day of NTSB hearings into the crash of Continental Connection flight 3407, several experts on Thursday said additional safety equipment might have prevented the tragedy. "I think this crew went from complacency to catastrophe in 20 seconds," said board member Debbie Hersman, who advocated an audio warning system to alert pilots when their airspeed drops to unsafe levels. If the NTSB adopts such a recommendation in its final report, it would not be the first time. Investigators called for audible cockpit warnings following the crash of a twin-engine turboprop that claimed the life of Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone in 2002.